banks



(No Model.)

I J. C. BANKS..

Iron Railing'and Fence. N0. 236,755; Pate ntedlan. 18,1881.

WITNESSES TORNEES';

N-PiTE-RS; PHOTWUTNOGIUFHKR. WASHINGTON. D. C-

] UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN G. BANKS, OF VINGENNES, INDIANA, ASSIGNOR OF FOUR-FIFTHS TO I. R. MCCARTHY, D. B. HAMAKER, JAMES A. DICK, AND ALFRED PATTON,

OF SAME PLACE.

IRON RAILING AND FIENCE.

SPECIFICATION formingpart of Letters Patent No. 236,755, dated January 18, 1881.

Application filed November 1, 1880.

. (I0 the construction of the tubular rails and posts,

and the manner of connecting or jointing them together, whereby I secure important advantages in economy and rapidity of manufacture and erection of railings and fences.

5 In accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, Figure 1 is a perspective View of a portion of a fence or railing constructed according to my invention. Fig. 2 is a section showing the construction of the posts and the arrangement of the rails therewith. Fig. 3 is a perspective view of one of the posts. Figs. 4 and5 are plan views of one of the two plates-in the flat--from which the posts and rails are respectively formed.

It has been the usual practice to construct the longitudinal sections of tubular sheet-iron rails for verandas and lawn fences, 850., from one piece of sheet metal, whose edges are lapped and soldered together their entire length. Such rails are made by hand, and much labor is required to attach them .to the posts, so that the cost of a railing or fence, of which they form a principal feature, is relatively great. With a View to overcome this objection, and also produce a stronger and better railing or fence, 1 construct each rail B andpost O in two longitudinal parts, and fit them together as shown in Figs. 1, 2, 3. In other words, each such part is formed from a narrow oblongplate, A or A, Figs. 4, 5, by bending up its side edges, to a, in parallel positions, or at a right angle to the intervening portion. One of said parts is preferably constructed alittle wider than the other. They are put together so that the parallel flanges a a of one part pass between those of the other, thus forming a rail or post two of whose sides are of double thickness. This is the general (No model.)

construction of both rails B and posts 0 but the posts have the further peculiarity that they are provided with mortises to receive the rails. To form such mortises, the edges to a, of the metal sheets or plates A, Fig. 4, from which the posts are made, are slitted at opposite points, and the tongues thus formed bent in-' ward and lapped. When the two parts or plates A of the posts 0 are put together the notches, I), thus formed coincide, and constitute the rectangular mortises that receive the rails B, Figs. 1 and 2. The parts composing the rails B do not require soldering, but the parts of each post 0 are soldered contiguous to each mortise, thus securing all the parts of the railing or fence firmly together.

The rails and posts may be manufactured cheaply by machinery, may be quickly and easily put together by unskilled workmen, and but little solder is used to effect the required attachment of the several parts. The material employed is also not greater than for the old form of rail, while the strength derived from the lap-joints and mortises is considerably greater.

The rails and posts may be constructed of galvanized iron or any other preferred material.

I do not claim, broadly, a fence-post composed of two equal-sized longitudinal parts having parallel flanges.

What I claim as new is 1. The tubular wrought-metal polygonal rail composed of two longitudinal flanged parts, which are put together as shown and describedthat is to say, the flanges of one part being overlapped by those of the otherso that two sides of the rail have a double thickness, as shown and described.

2. The fence formed of the rails B and mortised posts 0, each composed of two longitudinal flanged parts, and one passed through 0 a mortise in the other, as shown and described.

JOHN G. BANKS.

Witnesses P. R. MCCARTHY, J. D. LA GROIX. 

